


Don't Blow Me Away

by storiesbeyondthestars



Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [11]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bad Things Happen Bingo, Gen, Keith and Lance's interactions were written platonically, but you can view them either way, prompt: strapped to a bomb
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-16
Updated: 2019-04-16
Packaged: 2020-01-15 02:45:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18489700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/storiesbeyondthestars/pseuds/storiesbeyondthestars





	Don't Blow Me Away

How was it that Shiro, and now Keith, dealt with  a lion that was so dark on the inside? Sure, Lance could have thought of many other things as he stared at the ceiling above him in Black, but he had to keep as still as possible and there was nothing else to focus on. Nothing that he  _wanted_ to think about.  
  
Could they make the lights brighter? Or turn on something that didn’t look like ultra violet ones?

“Can you make the lights brighter?” Lance asked.

“I can see fine, don’t worry,” Keith replied. His face appeared in Lance’s frame of view before he leaned back. “I can make them brighter, but it would hurt your eyes to look at.”

That was fair, and thoughtful. He hummed in acknowledgement.

There was a loud bang, and both of them grimaced as Black jerked. Keith froze where he kneeled beside Lance, and held his as they wanted for the worst to happen. Once the rocking stopped, he let out a breath. “Fuck.”

“Is everything okay?” Lance could hear Pidge’s voice faintly echo from Keith’s helmet. Her worry was palpable.

“We’re sorry!” Hunk added almost hysterically. “Those pirates stopped following us, but we didn’t see the meteor coming.”

Lance watched Keith huff with narrowed eyes. “You guys _need_ to watch out for anything. We have nowhere to set down.”

This whole situation was a mess. Blue dragged Red around, while Yellow guided Black. Green stayed in pace by them, though Pidge was distracted. It was understandable.

“I should come over there,” Pidge spoke up, not for the first time.

“No!” Lance and Keith both immediately said, before their eyes met. Keith had even gotten Kosmo to teleport over to Red to sit with Romelle for now.

Lance got that. It was better than having him there in case something went wrong.

And by something going wrong, he meant the bomb strapped to his chest exploded. Stupid space pirates.

Lance stared at the ceiling of the Black Lion. Something dark and disgusting welled up within him. God, he was so stupid, wasn’t he? Here he thought he was going to get a good deal on some kind of food Hunk might be able to use, only to get attacked.

Not _only_ had they taken the money he had on him to barter, but the people were nasty space pirates. They decided they wanted the lions, so they strapped a bomb to Lance’s chest.

His eyes turned towards Keith, who worked with steady hands and he pulled the top plate off of the bomb. They had no idea if it was timed to go off, or if it was a remote one, or if motion would trigger it. There were no fancy timers or anything like that to warn them. It was very much a bomb though.

Lance had told Keith to leave him somewhere at first. The thought of that he could hurt one of his friends made him sick. Keith refused point blank. He almost immediately started working on a plan to get it off of him.

The best they could come up with was that he’d had to deactivate it first rather than remove it. Shiro warned him that there was very likely a pressure plate on the bottom. Pidge mirrored this sentiment. That meant the bomb could go off the second Keith tried to lift it off of him.

The bomb was right over the blue V on his chess. A quick scan showed them that it was, in fact, powerful enough to blow him and anything around him sky high. Well, no, Black would survive. The lions were durable that way. There'd be a lot of damage on the inside though. When he shifted a bit, Keith reached up and put a bit of pressure on his chest above that.

“Stop moving.” He turned back, his brow furrowed.

“I’m sorry,” Lance muttered. They should throw him out and let the bomb explode with him attached. Coran and Romelle were both there with them. Surely one of them would be able to pilot Red in an emergency? They were also on the way back to Earth, so they could  find someone better there.

“It’s fine, just stay still.” If Keith caught on to what he wanted to apologize over, he didn't let on. “Alright, the plate is gone.” He set the metal down beside him.

“Okay, scan it again for me so I have a clearer image of what we’re working with,” Pidge ordered. Keith held his gauntlet up and scanned it again. He sent the 3D render to both Pidge and Hunk.

It would have been better for one of them to do this, but Keith had steady hands. He also also didn’t want to put anyone else at risk. Hell, Lance didn’t even want _Keith_ to be there, but he couldn’t do this on his own.

“What kind of idiot lets himself get captured and has a bomb strapped do him?” Lance blinked when he realized that he said that one out loud.

“The kind that tries to find more food for us,” Keith answered, as if Lance was stupid for the question. He met his gaze again. “The kind that cares about everyone else.”

“He’s right,” Pidge agreed. “Don’t worry, we’ll get you out of it.”

“She’s— _look out_ !” Allura screamed over the coms. Keith’s hands shot away from the bomb, and press down onto Lance to steady him as _something_ hit them. They careened forward until something stopped them.

Both of them breathed heavily for a moment. Then they both heard a little beep that sounded so much louder than it really was.

Keith’s eyes went wide as he realized the same thing that Lance did. “Pidge! This thing’s beeping but there’s no timer! Walk me through it _now_.”

“Okay, okay, work with me here!”

Lance watched with wide eyes as, despite the clear panic on Keith’s face, his hands remained steady. He followed Pidge’s instructions word for word. To Lance though, it sounded like the silence between the beeps was deceasing, and that didn’t sit well with him.

“Keith, just throw me into space,” Lance demanded. God, he didn’t want to die alone, he didn’t want to die at all, but he didn’t want Keith to get hurt because of him.

“What?”

“Better me than you! I’ll be okay. You’ll find a better Red Paladin.”

Keith froze, and his eyes met Lance's as the beeping got louder and steadier. A wild look appeared on his face, and Keith _tore_ off Lance’s helmet and grabbed at his armour despite his protests. Keith pried it off of him and _ran_.

“Keith!” Lance shrieked when he realized what had happened. He pushed himself up and tried to leave, but Black slammed the door to the cockpit shut. That meant Keith opened the airlock already (aka Black opened her mouth).

There was a another loud bang and Black shuddered a bit. Lance could hear yelling from over his discarded helmet, and his heart pounded in his chest.

Then the door slid open again, and he fell forward right into Keith’s chest. Lance didn't even completely realize that he scrambled for his friend, and hugged him tightly. Maybe if he squeezed his to death, he wouldn't do something like that again. “You _idiot!_ ”

Keith bristled a bit at that. “I wasn’t going to let you blow up!”

“But you almost blew yourself up!” Lance grabbed Keith’s helmet, pulled it off, and tossed it down. It cut out the questions from everyone else, but that was fine for now. “You idiot!”

“You said that already,” Keith replied. His reached up to where Lance held onto the collar of his armour (the same as the armour he had tossed out to save him), pried it off, and held his hands. “We could never find another Red Paladin that could deal with my shit.”

A shuddering breath escaped Lance’s lips as he leaned his forehead onto Keith’s shoulder, holding him close.


End file.
